Xi understands that Trump needs a crowd pleasing victory back home and will deliver on that goal. China will use its very successful millennial tributary system to help Trump bring home the bacon, and DJT will tacitly integrate his presidency into this ancient diplomatic framework.

The whole affair had the feel of a Ming Dynasty state visit, with 600 years of technology layered on top. Thus, we can say Godfree’s prediction that Sino-American relations will start taking on the form of China’s win-win tributary system has serious merit.

The results over Korea were less clear. To be honest, in their joint press conference (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjMLQgd6bl4), it looked like DJT and XJP more or less kicked the can down the road. Nothing of any great importance was announced, other than the two sides needed each other to solve the problem, it should all happen through the United Nations and military action was not the answer. Given the bellicose aggression the United States has been projecting in Korea, since the end of World War II (see footnote below), one could say that this was an important public acceptance of Asian realpolitik, from typically high handed, “we’ll do whatever the hell we want even if it’s illegal” imperial America. But, this is hardly a headline grabbing victory for Trump.

Thus, Godfree’s hopeful prediction, and he admitted it was a long shot, that some kind of cross border cooperation would be announced did not come to fruition. But, I will make a bold prognostication myself: before Trump leaves the White House, either he or Tillerson will meet with DPRK leader Kim Jong-Un. I’ll let you in on a little secret: it’s what Trump wants. In his own inimitable way, DJT said exactly that in an official tweet yesterday,

This tweet is not a Freudian slip. Trump means it.

This is not the first time. In May, 2017, DJT said this about DPRK leader Kim Jong-Un,

Trump’s ambitious Asian tour included attending two major regional summits, APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) in Vietnam and ASEAN (Associaton of Southeast Asian Nations) in the Philippines. By SCMP.com

You can say what you want, but as far as Asian-American affairs are concerned, DJT is working hard for his citizens, which is more than can be said about America’s previous presidents, going back as many administrations as you care to argue. Trump even came out and said exactly that (http://globalnewsempire.com/uscanada/trump-does-not-blame-china-for-unfair-trade/). Listen to his APEC speech in Vietnam. The last president who talked like this was Ronald Reagan and then further back, to John F. Kennedy and Franklin D. Roosevelt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKz72bTualE). Love ‘em or not, they all had something other recent presidents have lacked: vision.

One thing is clear. I don’t think we could have survived another four years of deep state, Wall Street elitism in the White House. As much as many people hate DJT, I shudder at the thought of uber imperial Hillary Clinton being president.

Conversely, you may not approve of Trump’s vision, but you know where he stands. He has clearly articulated his intention to defend his country’s interests and improve the lot of the American people, which is what any respectable leader should do, who is worth their salt. Sadly, sodium chloride has been sorely lacking in Washington and London since the 1980s, and in Paris since Nicolas Sarkozy was president.

After China, DJT went to communist-socialist Vietnam to meet President Tran Dai Quang. Trump’s delegation inked $12 billion in contracts. While comparatively puny to China’s leviathan showstopper, remember that Vietnam is economically like one province in China, and China has 34 of them, so this amount is about right. In their joint press conference, Trump said something jaw dropping that is utter blasphemy in deep state Washington-London-Paris-Tel Aviv.

…the United States is open to a free and open Indo-Pacific, where strong and independent nations respect each other’s sovereignty, uphold the rule of law and advance responsible commerce. We want our partners in the Indo-Pacific to be proud and self-reliant, not proxies or satellites. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liLd9DfI6nE&t=620s)

Trump clearly sees the diminishing marginal returns of the West’s imperial colonial model and in his mind, he hopes to change five centuries of one-sided exploitation, extraction, resource invasions, sacking, pillaging and genocide. Again, love him or hate him, but DJT has a vision that is antithetical to the deep state’s policy of total global domination and destruction.

Now the big question is: what happens when Trump gets off Air Force One in Washington tomorrow, after his successful Asian tour? How does he work through and around the Departments of Defense, Justice and State, the CIA-NSA complex, oil bankers, military contractors, prostituted US Congress and this murderous collective deep state’s equally corrupt mainstream media Myrmidons, without ending up dead like JFK (https://www.amazon.com/China-Rising-Capitalist-Socialist-Destinations-ebook/dp/B01LZ5KKNQ/), or framed and booted out of office, like Richard “I don’t want to go out like Jack” Nixon?

In closing, when analyzing all the background to these events, Donald Trump is a very brave man indeed, who is risking his life or his historical reputation for his vision of a post-Western imperial world order. It just so happens to be the same vision in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba, Eritrea, etc., which gives me hope.

Footnote:

I am very active about reporting on the Korean peninsula. Learn how the world really works.

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In China, he has been a speaker at TEDx, the Bookworm and Capital M Literary Festivals, the Hutong, as well as being featured in an 18-part series of interviews on Radio Beijing AM774, with former BBC journalist, Bruce Connolly. He has guest lectured at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences and various international schools and universities.

More on Jeff

Jeff grew up in the heartland of the United States, Oklahoma, much of it on a family farm, and graduated from Oklahoma State University. He went to Brazil while in graduate school at Purdue University, to seek his fortune, which whetted his appetite for traveling the globe. This helped inspire him to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tunisia in 1980 and he lived and worked in Africa, the Middle East, China and Europe for the next 21 years. All the while, he mastered Portuguese, Arabic, French and Mandarin, while traveling to over 85 countries. He then returned to America for nine years, whereupon he moved back to China in 2010. He lives in China with his wife. Jeff is a dual national French-American, being a member of the Communist Party of France (PCF) and the International Workers of the World (IWW).

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